Governor Orders Review of Dam Inspection Procedures

Governor Matt Blunt has ordered Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers to review his agency’s system of inspecting more than 650 dams in the state. This comes after last week’s collapse of the Taum Sauk Reservoir in southeast Missouri. Childers points out that reservoir was not under the state’s inspection system. Childers wants to get an answer back to the Governor soon. One of the first items Childers wants to look at is the risk categorization of some dams in the state. He says his agency does not rank the risk of a dam based on the amount of water it holds back and maybe it should.